Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 79

"The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath; And in the cup an union[760] shall he throw."

[760] A union is a precious pearl, remarkable for its size.

Further on Hamlet himself asks, tauntingly:

"Here, thou incestuous, murderous, d.a.m.ned Dane, Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?"

Malone, as an ill.u.s.tration of this custom, quotes from the second part of Heywood's "If You Know Not Me You Know n.o.body:"

"Here sixteen thousand pound at one clap goes Instead of sugar. Gresham drinks this pearl Unto the queen, his mistress."

In former times powdered pearls were considered invaluable for stomach complaints; and Rondeletius tells us that they were supposed to possess an exhilarating quality: "Uniones quae a conchis, et valde cordiales sunt."

Much mystery was, in bygone days, thought to hang over the origin of pearls, and, according to the poetic Orientals,[761] "Every year, on the sixteenth day of the month Nisan, the pearl oysters rise to the sea and open their sh.e.l.ls, in order to receive the rain which falls at that time, and the drops thus caught become pearls." Thus, in "Richard III."

(iv. 4) the king says:

"The liquid drops of tears that you have shed Shall come again, transform'd to orient pearl, Advantaging their loan with interest Of ten times double gain of happiness."

[761] See Jones's "History and Mystery of Precious Stones," p. 116.

Moore, in one of his Melodies, notices this pretty notion:

"And precious the tear as that rain from the sky Which turns into pearls as it falls in the sea."

_Turquoise._ This stone was probably more esteemed for its secret virtues than from any commercial value, the turquoise, turkise, or turkey-stone, having from a remote period been supposed to possess talismanic properties. Thus, in the "Merchant of Venice" (iii. 1), Shylock says: "It was my turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor: I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys." Mr.

Dyce[762] says that Shylock valued his turquoise, "not only as being the gift of Leah, but on account of the imaginary virtues ascribed to it: which was supposed to become pale or to brighten according as the health of the wearer was bad or good." Thus, Ben Jonson, in "Seja.n.u.s" (i. 1), alludes to its wonderful properties:

"And true as turkoise in the dear lord's ring, Look well or ill with him."

[762] "Glossary," p. 465.

Fenton, in his "Certain Secret Wonders of Nature" (1569), thus describes it: "The turkeys doth move when there is any evil prepared to him that weareth it." There were numerous other magical properties ascribed to the turquoise. Thus, it was supposed to lose its color entirely at the death of its owner, but to recover it when placed upon the finger of a new and healthy possessor. It was also said that whoever wore a turquoise, so that either it or its setting touched the skin, might fall from any height, the stone attracting to itself the whole force of the blow. With the Germans, the turquoise is still the gem appropriated to the ring, the "gage d'amour," presented by the lover on the acceptance of his suit, the permanence of its color being believed to depend upon the constancy of his affection.[763]

[763] See C. W. King on "Precious Stones," 1867, p. 267.

CHAPTER XVI.

SPORTS AND PASTIMES.

Very many of the old sports and pastimes in popular use in Shakespeare's day have long ago not only been laid aside, but, in the course of years, have become entirely forgotten. This is to be regretted, as a great number of these capital diversions were admirably suited both for in and out of doors, the simplicity which marked them being one of their distinguis.h.i.+ng charms. That Shakespeare, too, took an interest in these good old sources of recreation, may be gathered from the frequent reference which he has made to them; his mention of some childish game even serving occasionally as an ill.u.s.tration in a pa.s.sage characterized by its force and vigor.

_Archery._ In Shakespeare's day this was a very popular diversion, and the "Knights of Prince Arthur's Round Table" was a society of archers inst.i.tuted by Henry VIII., and encouraged in the reign of Elizabeth.[764] Fitzstephen, who wrote in the reign of Henry II., notices it among the summer pastimes of the London youth; and the repeated statutes, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, enforcing the use of the bow, generally ordered the leisure time upon holidays to be pa.s.sed in its exercise.[765] Shakespeare seems to have been intimately acquainted with the numerous terms connected with archery, many of which we find scattered throughout his plays. Thus, in "Love's Labour's Lost" (iv. 1), Maria uses the expression, "Wide o' the bow hand," a term which signified a good deal to the left of the mark.

[764] See Drake's "Shakespeare and His Times," vol. ii. pp.

178-181.

[765] Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1870, vol. ii. p. 290.

The "clout" was the nail or pin of the target, and "from the pa.s.sages,"

says Dyce,[766] "which I happen to recollect in our early writers, I should say that the clout, or pin, stood in the centre of the inner circle of the b.u.t.ts, which circle, being painted white, was called the white; that, to 'hit the white' was a considerable feat, but that to 'hit or cleave the clout or pin' was a much greater one, though, no doubt, the expressions were occasionally used to signify the same thing, viz., to hit the mark." In "Love's Labour's Lost" (iv. 1), Costard says of Boyet:

"Indeed, a' must shoot nearer, or he'll ne'er hit the clout;"

and, in "2 Henry IV." (iii. 2), Shallow says of old Double: "He would have clapped i' the clout at twelve score"-that is, he would have hit the clout at twelve-score yards. And "King Lear" (iv. 6) employs the phrase "i' the clout, i' the clout: hewgh!"

[766] "Glossary," p. 84.

In "Romeo and Juliet" (ii. 4), where Mercutio relates how Romeo is "shot thorough the ear with a love-song; the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy's b.u.t.t-shaft," the metaphor, of course, is from archery.

The term "loose" was the technical one for the discharging of an arrow, and occurs in "Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 2).

According to Capell,[767] the words of Bottom, in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (i. 2), "hold, or cut bow-strings," were a proverbial phrase, and alluded to archery. "When a party was made at b.u.t.ts, a.s.surance of meeting was given in the words of that phrase, the sense of the person using them being that he would 'hold' or keep promise, or they might 'cut his bow-strings,' demolish him for an archer." Whether, adds Dyce, "this be the true explanation of the phrase, I am unable to determine."

[767] "Glossary," p. 210.

_All hid, all hid._ Biron, in "Love's Labour's Lost" (iv. 3), no doubt means the game well-known as hide-and-seek, "All hid, all hid; an old infant play." The following note, however, in Cotgrave's "French and English Dictionary," has been adduced to show that he may possibly mean blind-man's-buff: "Clignema.s.set. The childish play called Hodman-blind [_i. e._, blind-man's-buff], Harrie-racket, or Are you all hid."

_Backgammon._ The old name for this game was "Tables," as in "Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 2):

"This is the ape of form, monsieur the nice That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice."

An interesting history of this game will be found in Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes" (1876, pp. 419-421).

_Barley-break._ This game, called also the "Last Couple in h.e.l.l," which is alluded to in the "Two n.o.ble Kinsmen," (iv. 3), was played by six people, three of each s.e.x, who were coupled by lot.[768] A piece of ground was then chosen, and divided into three compartments, of which the middle one was called h.e.l.l. It was the object of the couple condemned to this division to catch the others, who advanced from the two extremities; in which case a change of situation took place, and h.e.l.l was filled by the couple who were excluded by preoccupation from the other places. This catching, however, was not so easy, as, by the rules of the game, the middle couple were not to separate before they had succeeded, while the others might break hands whenever they found themselves hard pressed. When all had been taken in turn, the last couple were said "to be in h.e.l.l," and the game ended.

[768] From Gifford's Note on Ma.s.singer's Works, 1813, vol. i.

p. 104.

The game was frequently mentioned by old writers, and appears to have been very popular. From Herrick's Poems, it is seen that the couples in their confinement occasionally solaced themselves by kisses:

"_Barley-break; or, Last in h.e.l.l._

"We two are last in h.e.l.l; what may we fear, To be tormented, or kept pris'ners here?

Alas, if kissing be of plagues the worst, We'll wish in h.e.l.l we had been last and first."

In Scotland it was called barla-breikis, and was, says Jamieson, "generally played by young people in a corn-yard, hence its name, barla-bracks, about the stacks."[769] The term "h.e.l.l," says Nares,[770]

"was indiscreet, and must have produced many profane allusions, besides familiarizing what ought always to preserve its due effect of awe upon the mind." Both its names are alluded to in the following pa.s.sage in s.h.i.+rley's "Bird in a Cage:"

"Shall's to barlibreak?

I was in h.e.l.l last; 'tis little less to be in a petticoat sometimes."

[769] See Jamieson's "Scottish Dictionary," 1879, vol. i. p. 122.

[770] "Glossary," vol. i. p. 57.